The Stone Lions Of Dalian

Sample:

June

A dog is barking. It’s a small dog, I can tell. A nasty, annoying little shit that barks at everyone. I know, I had one like this most of my life. The barking is just about the only sound out there. There isn’t much of a night life in this city, and even if there was, it wouldn’t be around this place.

I was originally hopeful that the dog’s barking would actually be useful, something more, beside the web-cams that will let me know that the Vandal is approaching. But I guess after so many false alarms, I became jaded. There will be no shortcuts. I just need to be alert until the end of the night shift.

The “living room” is small. The owner did not leave a lot of furniture; just the table, the bed, and the chair. Bare minimum. For some reason, he did leave a mechanical clock, and its faint ticking joins the dog’s barks.

I get up to stretch my bones a bit. The hard wooden chair is not very comfortable, and it was not designed for what I’m doing , sitting on it for whole nights and watching the lions on the CCTV display on my laptop. A pillow doesn’t make it much Better. I need an office chair, something made of soft leather, something that would absorb the weight of my fat ass comfortably for long periods.

I walk over to the window.

The two web cams are hung on the window netting pointing at different angles at the entrance to the `Glorious Residence` block. The lions are still standing. No vandal yet.

I lean on the windowsill, looking out. There are no cars driving past. It’s all dead. 1 in the morning and nothing.

The apartment is very small and rather primitive. The landlord, a nice old guy, was not legally allowed to rent it to me. Renting to a Laowai (foreigner), is something problematic in China. You need to get some inspection, and redo the ‘facilities’, mainly the toilet and shower. This place is small even by Chinese standards, the bathroom is the standard squat ’n flush toilet. The bed is a wooden frame with some burlap ropes netted together to brace the mattress. But In this case, there is no mattress, but a thick blanket. When I moved in, I was worried that it will not hold my weight. The bed, the bathroom and the little extra I had to pay to the landlord in order to get this room though, are worth it. It has the perfect view that I need of the street and the lions. Sooner or later, the vandal is going to come, and I am going to catch him.

Thinking of the vandal though is not an encouraging thought. I still need to figure out what exactly I can do , when I finally meet him. I don’t want to think about what will happen if he is anything like those dreams.

I make a hurried dinner of instant noodles, or as I translate from Chinese: “convenient noodles”. This preparation doesn’t require me to leave the computer for a long time. I set the kettle boiling, run back, open the pack, and get things ready as I watch the computer screen. Finally, I add water, and some fresh needle mushrooms, that I’ve already cleaned. Done. In total, I lost about a minute of viewing time, but now I have something to eat, I also made another big beer mug full of tea with the rest of the hot water. I’ll drink that later. Both the paper cup and the mug are sitting beside my keyboard, steaming. I can smell the soup.

I’m actually very sick of eating this crap. It’s terrible and I can feel how it isn’t doing anything good to my body. In the first week on this diet, when I stopped calling to Chen’s take out, I couldn’t hold the stuff in and had to run... Now I guess, for better or worse, my stomach is acclimated to the toxic sludge and I just feel nauseous a bit. No biggie.

I wish China would have more of a canned food culture, but they don’t. No camping here. They have a lot of spicy dried things and spicy oily things but it’s not for me.

Calling Chen’s is out of the question. I can’t afford it. I can’t afford a real meal, not since I lost the last gig.

The clock is ticking, Mechanically and existentially. My dough will run out , but it’ll be a close race between that and my visa which has a very definite expiration date. I ration the money the best I can, but I can’t do a thing about the other. So instant noodles....

Maybe I should look for a new job. Maybe I should just give up.

Oh . Here is someone walking across. I didn’t look for a second, but the guy got out of a green company taxi cab, but this isn’t the vandal. He is walking away, down the street and out of view. He looks youngish, and wobbly. Got a bit drunk; a late night office outing. Going to a Karaoke bar. Getting drunk on Baijiu... But it’s a bit late for him to come back from a drink with the guys... He is a bit under-dressed as well. So, what is he doing, walking around at 1....2 am?

Well, now I have a game! Some entertainment. He`s wobbly and of course it means he had some drinks. But it couldn’t be a normal party. Even the Mazhong saloons aren’t open this late. I can think of a nightclub or two, but they are too far away, and he doesn’t look like clubber material.

My story is this: They guy did go to a Karaoke bar early on, where he stayed later then his buddies. He did that because he was going to try to hit on one of the girls. But that didn’t work out. These girls don’t sleep around and would not let him even get a phone number. Our guy didn’t see that, and thought the girl was sending him signals. What can he lose? He took a shot and struck out.

Now, we are about eleven—twelve o’clock and our frustrated friend is facing closing time at the KTV. Doesn’t matter- he is very drunk by now and walks around plastered. Now, he faces a dilemma that his muddled brain can barely handle: Go back home, and try and get some sleep- Tomorrow is still a work day. Or try doing something fun. He does neither and enters the park around the corner. He spends the next hour screaming and goofing off with the public exercise machines.

Finally, our guy’s alcohol level gets low enough and he takes a taxi home. What he doesn’t know , is that his wife left him, pissed off from all the late nights and the general insensitivity. The guy will somehow get up tomorrow, or actually today. He will hurry getting things right for work, but by the time he comes to the office, he will get into trouble. I don’t think he’ll get fired, but it would go as another black star in his file. He already has a few. The work day for him will be a hell of equal parts hangover and worrying about is wife. Not productive, he will not hit the sales quota. He won’t get past the minimal commission rate and by the end of the month will be really hurting. The decline in his life will continue on and in the end, he will be driven mad, strip naked in the middle of the office and scream at the top of his lungs, “I’m a Daisy!!” while standing on the desk.

Just a game. While I was playing the game I was still looking at the screen . I didn’t need to neglect my work. Just the amazing power of mind games to pass away the time.

But mind games have their limit. On the screen, the two night-filtered images, display the two lions, in real time, on two separate windows. I got the application for this, when I was starting out, along with the web cams. The field of vision overlaps somewhat, but I do get a fairly wide picture of the street that connects to the neighborhood. On the far right, I can see that wind is blowing, ruffling through the leaves of a branch that grew over the wall. Nothing else is happening in either view. I take a sip of cool, cheap green tea, and I think about all that’s happened, to bring myself to this moment in my life.

copyright ©iraweiss

Name : Ira Weiss (pseudonym)

Project Name : The Stone Lions Of Dalian

Genre: magical realism, suspense, young adult.

Target audience: 15-45

Word count: 168,000

Synopsis: Ira Weiss is living an isolated frustrating life in China. He struggles with loneliness and wrestles with thoughts of going home. when one of the stone lions that guard the entrance to his neighborhood is destroyed, Ira sets out to find who is responsible. He is haunted by terrible dreams of a vandal who destroys stone lions. Upon further investigation, Ira finds that stone lions are being destroyed all over the city of Dalian. Ira tries to involve other people, including the police in the matter but his failing in communicating and the general indifference of others frustrate him. he becomes obsessed with catching the vandal and forgets about all other matters.

The novel deals with many psychological aspects of isolation, alienation, and obsession. Ira uses his hunt for the vandal as a distraction of making harsh but necessary life decisions. he internalizes every perceived insult and completely misses the opportunities of making positive relationships with real people.

My Bio:

I have lived for many years in China , currently living in the city of Wuhan.

Living in a different country teaches a person how to deal better with crises and stress. And this story, to some extent, is based on my early personal experiences and state of mind.

I think this novel can help many people who suffer from anxiety and the inability to make important choices, and have fear of reaching out to other people.

Hobbies:

Writing, playing, and listening to music, making toys, but mostly dealing with baby stuff at the moment.

Personally, I am a proud but anxious new father, to a beautiful over-energetic toddler who should eat more.